What’s really in a Name-Letter Effect? Name-letter preferences as indirect measures of self-esteem

2014/01/01 by Vera Hoorens · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Psychology · Mathematics · #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research #Cultural Differences and Values #Psychology #Self-esteem #Neglect #Preference #Measure (data warehouse) #Social psychology #Trait #Phenomenon #Value (mathematics) #Epistemology #Computer science #Statistics #Mathematics

paper · doi:10.1080/10463283.2014.980085

openalex publication_date 2014/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15

Abstract

People show a preference for the letters occurring in their name (Name-Letter Effect), a phenomenon that has inspired the development of a frequently used indirect measure of self-esteem. This article reviews the literature on the Name-Letter Effect as the basis for this measure. It discusses the tasks that have been used to measure name-letter preferences and the algorithms that have been designed to extract self-esteem scores from them. It also reviews the evidence that name-letter preferences are valid indicators of self-esteem. The article shows that current knowledge on the value of name-letter preferences as measures of self-esteem is limited by (a) the inherent difficulty of assessing the validity of implicit measures, (b) the use of different, insufficiently justified algorithms, (c) a historical focus on preferences for initials, and (d) neglect of the state–trait distinction. The article ends with recommendations for the use of name-letter preferences to measure self-esteem.

Citations

• Implicit social cognition: Attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes.
• Affective consequences of mere ownership: The name letter effect in twelve European languages
• Mastery pleasure versus mere ownership: A quasi‐experimental cross‐cultural and cross‐alphabetical test of the name letter effect
• Initial and noninitial name-letter preferences as obtained through repeated letter rating tasks continue to reflect (different aspects of) self-esteem.
• Are implicit and explicit measures of self-esteem related? A meta-analysis for the Name-Letter Test
• The cessation of rumination through self-affirmation.
• Perfectionism and explicit self-esteem: The moderating role of implicit self-esteem
• Racial-ethnic identity development in children in a racial-ethnic minority group.
• How to Administer the Initial Preference Task
• Romantic jealousy and implicit and explicit self-esteem
• Name Letter Preferences Are Not Merely Mere Exposure: Implicit Egotism as Self-Regulation
• On the social nature of nonsocial perception: The mere ownership effect.
• Narcissism beyond Gestalt and awareness: The name letter effect
• The name letter effect: Attachment to self or primacy of own name writing?
• Attitudinal effects of mere exposure.
• Name-Letter Preferences for New Last Name and Abandoned Birth Name Initials in the Context of Name-Change via Marriage
• How to find what's in a name: Scrutinizing the optimality of five scoring algorithms for the name‐letter task
• Bad riddance or good rubbish? Ownership and not loss aversion causes the endowment effect
• What's in a name: Implicit self-esteem and the automatic self.

Cited by

• Name-letter effect [wikipedia]